GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS

RATIFICATION OF ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS:

All the accompanying public documents issued in other states, must be duly certified, pursuant to the Law ratifying the Convention on the abolishing the requirement of legalisation for Foreign Public Documents of 1972 (Apostille stamp).

If the accompanying documents are issued by authorities of other states which have not ratified the Convention on the abolishing the requirement of legalization for Foreign Public Documents concluded in Hague on 5.10.1961 (Apostille), they should bear diplomatic ratification. The diplomatic ratification is done through one of the following ways: stamping the document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country followed by a certification by the consular authority of the Republic in that country.

If in the issuing country there is an accredited diplomatic/ consular authority of the Republic, the chain of certification is as follows:

Certification of the document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country.

Certification of the signature of the officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country by an officer of the diplomatic/ consular authority of the Republic in the issuing country.

Certification of the signature of the officer of the diplomatic/ consular authority of the Republic in the issuing country by the Department of Certifications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic.

If there is not an accredited diplomatic/ consular authority of the Republic in the issuing country, the chain of certification is as follows:

Certification of the document by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country.

Certification of the signature of the officer of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the issuing country by a diplomatic/ consular authority of the issuing country in a third country.

Certification of the signature of the officer of the issuing country’s diplomatic/ consular authority in the specific third country by an officer of the diplomatic/ consular authority of the Republic in that third country.

Certification of the signature of the officer of the diplomatic/ consular authority in that third country by the Department of Certifications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic.

If the accompanying documents issued in other states are non-public, these must be certified by a certifying authority of that state (e.g. notary public).

By virtue of bilateral Government Agreements concluded, documents issued by Russia or Serbia are exempt from the requirement of any ratification / certification provided they are properly signed and that they bear an official stamp of the competent governmental authority that issued them.

Where an accompanying document required is a copy, it should be ratified in the same way.

Useful Information:

For information by the Ministry of Justice and Public Order in regards to the legalisation of documents, cklick here.

For the informational brochure on how to ensure that your public documents will be recognised abroad click here.

INFORMATION CONCERNING THE CIRCULATION BETWEEN MEMBER STATES OF CERTAIN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Pursuant to an EU Regulationwhich promotes the free movement of citizens, certain public documents and their certified copies are exempt from legalisation and the apostille formality within the EU from 16 February 2019. For some of these documents (see below in bold), you can also request a multilingual standard form to avoid translation requirements and, in any case, a certified translation made in any EU Member State must be accepted.

The exemption from legalisation and the apostille formality only applies to documents and their certified copies issued by the public authorities of a Member State and presented to the public authorities of another Member State. Such are:

documents emanating from a court or a court official;

administrative documents;

notarial acts;

official certificates placed on private documents;

diplomatic and consular documents.

Furthermore, the exemption applies only to documents establishing one or more of the facts listed below. Entries in bold indicate that there is a multilingual standard form available for such documents. Please note that not all standard forms are issued in all Member States.

birth

death

a person being alive

name

marriage, capacity to marry and marital status

divorce, legal separation or marriage annulment

registered partnership, capacity to enter into a registered partnership and registered partnership status

dissolution of a registered partnership, legal separation or annulment of a registered partnership

parenthood or adoption

domicile and/or residence

nationality

absence of a criminal record

standing as candidates or voting in elections to the European Parliament or in municipal elections in another Member State

A multilingual standard form can only be used in another Member State and must be presented together with the public document to which it is attached.

Where a Member State permits the presentation of a certified copy of a public document instead of the original, the authorities of that Member State must accept a certified copy made in the Member State where the public document was issued.

All documents submitted with the application shall be in Greek or English. Otherwise, they must be accompanied by a certified translation into one of these languages, by the Press and Information Office or by a Consular Authority of the issuing country or by a governmental department/ service of the issuing country.